Nate Bargatze

Bargatze married Laura Baines on October 13, 2006. The couple met in their early twenties while working at an Applebee's on Thompson Lane in Nashville, where he was a host and she was a server. They have a daughter, Harper. The family lived in Los Angeles before returning to Nashville to raise their child.

He grew up in a Christian home and has continued to practice his faith as an adult. Early in his comedy career, Bargatze drank heavily and felt the habit was close to derailing his work. He stopped drinking in 2018.

Outside of performing, Bargatze is a golfer with a 7 handicap. He has competed in pro-am tournaments, including the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Simmons Bank Open. In 2024, he donated $1.15 million to his alma mater, Donelson Christian Academy, toward the construction of an indoor athletic facility, which the school named after him.

Bargatze was born in Nashville and raised in the Old Hickory area alongside his brother Derek and sister Abigail. His father, Stephen Bargatze, worked as a traveling magician and clown, while his mother, Carol, worked in the athletic ticket office at Vanderbilt University. As an adult, Bargatze discovered he has dyslexia. He graduated from Donelson Christian Academy in 1997 after being cut from the school basketball team three years in a row.

College did not last. He briefly attended Volunteer State Community College and later Western Kentucky University, where he failed his courses and dropped out in his first semester. He worked odd jobs, delivering mattresses, staffing a cellphone kiosk, and reading water meters in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Together with fellow meter reader Michael Clay, he decided to leave the utility company in 2002 to try comedy.

The pair moved to Chicago, sharing a basement apartment. Bargatze briefly took classes at The Second City before switching to Jim Rauth's Comedy College to focus on stand-up. In 2004, he moved to New York City. He worked day shifts walking dogs and delivering packages for FedEx while barking outside the Boston Comedy Club at night to earn stage time. He also toured overseas with the USO, performing for American military personnel in Kuwait, Iraq, Greenland, and Honduras.

Bargatze won competitions at both the Boston Comedy Festival and New York Comedy Festival in 2010. His debut comedy album, Yelled At By A Clown, arrived in 2012 and reached number two on the Billboard comedy charts. Praise from Marc Maron and Jimmy Fallon followed. Fallon featured Bargatze on his Clean Cut Comedy Tour in 2013, reinforcing Bargatze's commitment to clean material.

A half-hour set on the 2017 Netflix showcase series The Standups expanded his audience. Larger crowds immediately followed. In 2019, Netflix released his first hour-long special, The Tennessee Kid. His 2021 follow-up special, The Greatest Average American, was filmed outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood during the COVID-19 pandemic and received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album.

His popularity grew into arenas. On April 15, 2023, Bargatze drew 19,365 attendees to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, breaking the venue's all-time attendance record. His 2023 Amazon Prime special, Hello World, drew nearly three million viewers in its first four weeks. His 2024 Netflix release, Your Friend, Nate Bargatze, won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Bargatze hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2023 and returned to host in October 2024. Both episodes featured sketches in which he portrayed George Washington dreaming of an absurd system of weights and measurements for the new United States.

In 2020, Bargatze launched The Nateland Podcast with comedians Brian Bates and Aaron Weber, later adding Dusty Slay to the weekly lineup. The project grew into Nateland Entertainment, a production banner backing stand-up specials and unscripted television. In February 2026, he began hosting the ABC game show The Greatest Average American.

He hosted the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2025. During the telecast, he introduced a charity counter for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America that deducted money for extended acceptance speeches. Bargatze later donated $250,000 to the organization. In 2026, he made his feature screenwriting and starring debut in the comedy film The Breadwinner.